We’ve been through this - if you spend 2 years taking HS level classes in college, you needed a lot of remedial work or were purposely sandbagging.
Community colleges are a great option for those who don’t want to / can’t pay for 4 years.
I’d bet that wasn’t a required class and you could’ve chosen something that might at least be more informative about your day to day world, if not directly applicable. ;D
Same here, with my engineering degree. I get more and more convinced by the year that humanities and social sciences should be incorporated much more into STEM degrees.
My take as a career engineer that’s moved up through the ranks: the typical engineer doesn’t take enough humanities classes and more should be required.
That’s because 12 hours is the absolute minimum to be a full time student. If you do the absolute minimum every year, yeah, it takes longer. I think most 4 year programs baseline 15 or so.
Agree with the sentiment, if not the actual statement. What’s valued is getting shit done. Getting shit done generally requires social skills (but isn’t valued per se) and a whole lot of communications and critical thinking. I’m not sure humanities helps with the social skills, but certainly can help with communications and critical thinking.
Different strokes (schools) for different folks. How schools and professors handle this vary widely. Somewhat ironic given your push against the wide breadth of requirements, but given your posts, I bet you would’ve flourished at a top small liberal arts school, something like Swarthmore or Williams.
All I know is that I told my SO that if I ever start talking about about post grad or PhDs to slap me hard in the face a few times. No more school for me. I’ve done enough
I have MSc’s., BTEC’s, Exec Ed certificates up the Ying Yang -----what I value more than the name brand schools is the certificate from the College of the Cariboo!
In fact, the Boston folk that hired me after grad school mentioned the Cariboo is why they hired me. Silk stocking combined with manure sounding qualifications.
I have degrees in engineering and philosophy. The philosophy degree was a waste of time and money. I could have achieved the same result by reading more. I also regret attending a top ten engineering school instead of a four year engineering tech school with a lesser reputation. The former was geared towards research and the latter geared towards vocational tech classes like welding, CAD, and heat treating which would be a lot more useful to me now.
Eh. The latter skills are better, and cheaply, picked up at adult education / juco classes. The problem is a lot of engineering students end up in engineering because they happen to be good at math while being interested in hands on work, which engineering degrees aren’t aimed at (because guidance counselors, parents, and kids don’t know what engineers actually do).
You could pick up welding/heat treating skills at vocational schools, but if you’re good with your hands, you just need someone to show you how it’s done and you learn by doing. Could even try those welding tests (where someone welds 3/4" plates together multi pass with stick welds) and see if you can pass them. To pass the welded section is cut into coupons, polished into squares, and bent into a U shape with a hydraulic press. A pass is a bend without any fractures.
Heat treating on the other hand, I did it a few times but I guess the challenge is doing them without creating internal stresses and such. Basically heat the steel until it glows cherry red (according to my eye it’s actually more orange end of the glow), then quench in oil. Temper by reheating it until you reach your target temperature, and depending on what sort of temper you want to reach, hold it for the specified time. If you need to heat treat larger items, you can build a forge with firebricks (the same kind they use to make pizza ovens with) and stick a large blowtorch in it. I heat treated stuff by simply stacking some fire bricks and sticking torches into it.
Actually learning stick is cheaper because welding sticks aren’t expensive, and stick welders aren’t expensive either. You need no other consumable apart from the stick. They just suck for precision welds…
I have extensive experience in weldling, heat-treating/stress relieving at this point in my engineering career. In my experience it takes about four years of stick/TIG/resistance welding on a regular basis to become a truly skilled, capable welder.
Albert Einstein fled Nazi Germany in 1933 after Adolf Hitler came to power, renouncing his German citizenship and seeking refuge in the United States, where he became a professor at Princeton.
Really- why didn’t his grandmother stay and get put in a death camp? That would show 'em.
I think your comparison of Hitler’s Germany and Trump’s America to be quite apt, though.
My suggestions would be like follows:
-more focus on core major classes, less non-major electives
-most general first year classes can be covered in high school.
-first year of college doing independent study on courses (arranged by university) designed to prepare for your major. This will give students more insight into what they need to succeed. If cannot pass these courses then reconsider your direction.
-should be able to graduate in most majors in 3 years.
-more focus by universities to strengthen their core majors…cut some majors…other universities can offer what is cut.
-much more focus on vocational schools. Expansion of schools focused on specific trades/industries.
-eliminate sports from some universities. Not all schools need to have football, basketball, baseball, etc. Encourage alumni to donate to academic programs instead of athletes and building athletic facilities.
To me all the trash talk about universities, like DEI and such, is not going to address the various issues at universities. Is DEI a problem…possibly…I just don’t know how much impact DEI actually has. Just like alumni’s kids getting special consideration for school admission.
At university I was a business major with a minor in asian studies. The quality of the facilities in the business school and asian studies department were drastically different. Brand new modern building for my business classes. For my Chinese class the room was stuffy so I tried to open the ancient wood frame windows…I could only push the window up a small way. On the way to class in the business building I saw a protest happening outside the building. I was told was students with other majors complaining about all of the money going to the business school instead of them. The protest was successful. The following year I was informed by a counselor that my graduation requirements now included two liberal art classes. I laughed as I thought she was joking and asked her as such. She said “No, I am serious.” I asked her what is a liberal arts class. In the end I signed up for “Music in World Cultures” and “English Writing”. The writing class ended up being one of the most useful classes I ever took.
I think is absolutely ridiculous that a university (e.g. U. of Colorado) now charges a “athletic department fee” to all students as they want more money to support sport programs like football. Meanwhile, can see university presidents claiming that winning in sports has helped increase student enrollment figures. I have to say if your students choose the school based on the winner percentage of the football or basketball programs…then you are probably not attracting quality students.
This is actually why US schools cost so damn much. It’s a business and a competitive business.
Kids aren’t that smart. I told my parents I picked the school I went to because of its good business program and don’t get me wrong it’s 1 reason why.
But it’s all the other stuff like it was a good party school, good gyms and facilities, etc that makes kids want to go.
There’s literally guides in the US for students picking schools that rank all of these things from academic programs to how good the football team is. University for students and parents are as much as about the social aspect as it is learning. Some people really want to enjoy the sports programs of a school
-----what I value more than the name brand schools is the certificate from the College of the Cariboo! 